Archive for June 1st, 2009
Abortion and Murder
Abortion is not my issue. Indeed, I often lament the fact that the Politically Correct moralizers of the Left and the Piously Correct moralizers on the Right twist our statesmen in knots making them take a position on an issue that should have nothing to do with our secular government. My own position probably mirrors the majority of Americans at this point, on this morally tricky issue.
During the first trimester, I unequivocally support a woman’s right to choose whether to allow a zygote to become a baby in her womb. There are all manner of morally supportable reasons to terminate an unintended pregnancy; chief among them being rape, incest, known deformities, etc. The state should not have the power to force a woman to birth an unwanted child. By the second trimester, as the fetus is becoming a baby, the moral issue becomes a little more problematic in my mind; but I would still deny the state a say in the matter.
In the third trimester, and increasingly as the viability of the baby to survive outside the womb without medical heroics is developed, the notion of calling the intentional termination of the pregnancy an “abortion,” instead of infanticide, is a bit disingenuous. If one can be charged with double homicide for killing a pregnant woman bearing a viable baby, it would seem to be common sense that anyone involved in deliberately killing just the baby would be guilty of homicide too.
Thus, to my mind, absolutists in either PC camp are wrong. If one can justify a single exception to an absolute position, then other exceptions are just subjective opinions on a very slippery slope. To me, the infamous late term abortionist Dr. George Tiller was one evil SOB, and I’ll lose no sleep over the long overdue “abortion” of his own life. Just because the Politically Correct moralizers have managed to intimidate elected officials into sanctioning the horrendous activities of this serial killer, in no way absolves him of his crimes against humanity; and the world is better off without him.
This of course, brings us to the necessity of dealing with Scott Roeder, the man who aborted Tiller. He too is guilty of murder and society must do its duty and try him for the crime. One presumes that he was prepared to pay the price for his action when he chose the time, place, and manner of it. It will be easy to write him off as a kook, and we can expect the MSM to have a field day demonizing pro-life and “right-wing” extremists, even though spokesmen for all manner of groups of such have condemned Roeder for his action.
Interestingly, because I am neither pro-live nor “right-wing,” I find on reflection that I have some sympathy for Roeder, whom I know almost nothing about. I don’t know how many times in life I have asked the rhetorical question, “How do such evil SOB’s manage to stay alive?” We have all encountered unscrupulous crooks, con men, lawyers, pedophiles, politicians, bureaucrats, and other petty tyrants, etc. who just keep getting away with the most unacceptable behavior and downright harm to innocent honest citizens.
Doesn’t it sometimes seem that the criminal justice system does a better job protecting them from our retribution, than us from their nefarious activities? People have been trying for years to work within the system to stop Tiller from murdering babies moments before they would be born. One does not need to be a Piously Correct moralizer to find his medical practice morally reprehensible.
The wonder is not that some frustrated citizen finally took the law into his own hands; but why it took as long as it did for one to become fed up enough to do it. It wouldn’t do for the prosecution to allow me on his jury; chances are I would nullify it. ◄Dave►
